1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid crystal display (hereinafter referred to as “LCD”), and more particularly to a LCD capable of performing an information processing function with minimized dimension.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, the advancement in the information industry has remarkably developed information processing apparatuses, such as computers. Also, the technical progress in the information processing apparatuses in turn brings about the development of monitor units that externally displays the information supplied from the information processing apparatuses.
Largely, the monitor units are classified into “CRT-type monitor units” using the characteristics of cathode ray tubes and “LCD unit-type monitor units” applied with the physical and optical characteristics of liquid crystals. The LCD unit-type monitor units, because of the advantages such as the minimization, light-weight and low power dissipation, compared to the “CRT-type monitor units,” are being widely available in the display apparatus of a portable computer, a monitor of a desk-top computer and a monitor of an image apparatus of high picture quality.
The specific examples of the foregoing LCD unit-type monitor units are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,502,582 issued to Larson et al. entitled by “Light Source Cooler for LCD Monitor”, U.S. Pat. No. 5,791,770 issued to Hoyt et al. in the same title, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,825,614 issued to Kim entitled by “Compact Personal Computer with LCD monitor.”
Considering the above patents, the notebook computer, a kind of portable computer, has a main body for storing and processing information provided by an input unit such as a keyboard; and a monitor unit capable of swinging about the main body for displaying the information supplied from the main body thereon.
In a notebook computer, the monitor unit includes an LCD and a case. The LCD has a LCD panel assembly, a backlight assembly, a mold frame and a chassis. The LCD panel assembly has a liquid crystal panel, a signal transmission film, a source printed circuit board (hereafter, referred to as “PCB”), a gate PCB and a control board.
Here, the source PCB, gate PCB and control board are mounted to be separated from one another, and electrically connected by means of a flexible PCB for securing the signal transmission path from one another.
The control board generates a color signal, a clock signal and a power source signal in accordance with image signals. The source PCB carries out an operation for displaying the images in response to the signals supplied from the control board.
At this time, the source PCB is mounted with various portions such as a data latch section, a timing generating section, a voltage generating section, and so on to generate signals such as a driving signal and a control signal. The gate PCB is mounted with a gate voltage supplying section for generating a predetermined gate voltage in response to the control signal from the source PCB.
The aforementioned source PCB and gate PCB are mounted to the LCD in a PCB-bending manner, and bent from the side plane toward the rear plane of the LCD to be connected to the control board. Therefore, the LCD becomes as thick as the thickness of the components mounted to the source PCB.
On the other hand, the signals provided from the aforementioned information processing apparatus are of analog signals, but the LCD unit-type monitor unit is generally driven by digital signals. Accordingly, the monitor unit has an analog-digital convert circuit board for converting the analog signals supplied from the information processing apparatus into the digital signals.
The analog-digital convert circuit board is electrically connected to the control PCB by means of a connecting cable, and the control PCB is electrically connected to the source PCB by means of a flexible printed circuit board.
Once a lot of electric signals are transmitted via the flexible printed circuit board and connecting cable in a high speed, plenty of electromagnetic waves are generated from the members which electrically connect respective printed circuit boards. Thus, the electromagnetic wave serves as an inferior factor that greatly degrades the quality of the monitor unit.
Moreover, the flexible PCB and connecting cable are too expensive to satisfy the economic concern of heightening the cost of the product as well as the foregoing problem of electromagnetic wave.
Also, products provided by integrally coupling the main body of the computer system and the monitor unit is currently in great demand. However, these are just limited to the computer system applied with the CRT-type monitor unit while products provided by coupling the main body of the computer system to the LCD unit-type monitor unit have yet to be available.